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The official GenCon website is hosting the official press release with the news: the West coast GenCon is no more. Citing 'competing shows' in the Southern California area, the RPG convention is closing up shop so that staff can focus on the Midwestern/East Coast Flagship event GenCon Indy. In an open letter from Peter Adkinson, he states how much he regrets this decision, and describes the four years of the event as well as the decision-making that led to this state of affairs. In his long discussion of the event, he downplays the attempt to merge with the IDG event and the inclusion of videogames into the GenCon formula. Though it's not listed as a root cause, the death of E3 would seem to be having a ripple effect here as well. He makes sure to point out that GenCon Indy isn't going anywhere, and that this year's 40th anniversary should be an interesting one.

There seems to be a lot of conventions in flux recently. It makes me wonder what will next to hit the chopping block, and what will be slapped together at the last minute and get called a convention in a desperate, last minute attempt to fill the vacuum left by yet another shut down show.:\
It also brings up the question, at least in my mind, of whether it's just the current climate of the shows that has shut them down, or if it's a convenient scapegoat to hide behind when poor planning is the real culprit. In the case of E3, I certainly feel that was the case. Organizers could have done a lot more to overhaul the show and stop it from being a circus, but they didn't. Now it's gone.

Pre-Internet, the only way to find like minded people was to go to cons. Now there are tons of communities that have sprung up, and they normally know what the next thing coming out will be, so whats the point in a convention?